Rosetta Stone: the method behind the hype, a spelling bee with a twist, and Hillary’s Congo adventure

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, the rise and rise of Rosetta Stone. With big government contracts and a huge advertising campaign, Rosetta Stone is now American’s #1 language teacher. If you learn the Rosetta Stone way, you’ll absorb a language an infant does. Well, that’s the theory. Also, non-native English speakers from around the world take part in an English Spelling Bee in New York. And, Hillary Clinton’s not-so-lost-in-translation moment in Kinshasa, Congo. Download MP3

Global spellers gather in NYC

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Today in New York City, teenagers from seven non-English-speaking countries competed to become the best speller in English. It was the First Annual Global SpellEvent Championship, organized by Franklin Electronic Publishers. The winner received a scholarship worth $10,000. >>>Click here for more information on the event.

Haruki Murakami’s fans, confessions of a kanji-holic, and kwassa kwassa

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We check out a claim that with the aid of a super-computer, it’s possible to predict which words will become extinct in a few centuries. Also, a report on the extraordinarily devoted fans of Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. That’s followed by a conversation with Eve Kushner, a devoted fan of those Japanese characters known as kanji. Finally, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig on his favorite phrase out of Africa: kwassa kwassa.

Banning Hungarian, swearing for pain relief, and dog barks translated

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In the latest World in Words podcast, Patrick Cox and Clark Boyd select their top five language-related stories from July. Among them: Slovakia passes a law banning Hungarian in official communications in some of its Hungarian-speaking regions; new research seeks to show why babies and toddlers are so adept at learning two languages simultaneously; the trangressive nature of swearing helps when it comes to tolerating pain; and Japanese toy maker Takara Tomy has come up with a device that claims to translate dog noises into human language. But do we ready want to know what pooch is saying? Plus, our favorite hated words! Download MP3

David Crystal’s life in language, Moominmania and Nowheristan

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In this week’s The World in Words podcast, the granddaddy of British linguists David Crystal reflects on a life in language. Crystal is an inclusionist: he welcomes slang and textspeak, for example, into the English language. He recalls that as a young academic he was contacted by a shoe company who placed an order with him for several nouns and adjectives. Also this week, the Moomins: they’re as popular in their native Finland as Disney is in the United States. But strange things happen to the Moomins when they are translated into Japanese, Cantonese or English. Finally, we hear from a Lebanese man who has proclaimed himself Emperor of Nowheristan. Download MP3

Iran and translation, a search engine is sick in Chinese, and a drug ring’s Arabic dialects

Patrick Cox and Carol Hills select the top five language-related
stories from June. Among them: Google translation gets to work on the streets of Teheran; Microsoft’s choice of Bing as the name for its search engine to rival Google may not go down well in China; a music festival in Quebec runs afoul of language sensitivies; and a drug ring in Pennsylvannia uses Iraqi Arabic dialects in its communications.Listen

Bilingual romance in Paris, “whatever” in Mexico, and the fog of Pentagon acronyms in Afghanistan

Novelist Vanina Marsot’s new novel “Foreign Tongue” is about French, English, being bilingual, and translation. If you’re a fan of false cognates, this one is for you. Also, a Spanish expression beloved by Mexicans, and the Pentagon latest acronyms. Listen

Linguists trash English word count, speaking Uighur in Bermuda, and steady lah! The delights of Singlish

The delights of Singlish, Singapore’s popular unofficial language. Also, linguists trash a claim that English has gained its millionth word. And does anyone in Bermuda speak Uighur? Listen

The language of Guadeloupe and Martinique, Spanish unity and disunity, and teaching English in France part 2

This week, the language of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Also, more from an American in Paris and her attempts to teach English there. And Spaniards are divided over which song captures the nation’s spirit. Listen